There are many well working apps outside which allow to import subtitle files referenced to an image sequence for subtitles. Bad thing with those apps is that you need the app installed on your machine if you want to change the text. You can use other apps to create subtitles which address some of the build in or 3rd party text generators, with those you can change the text, but may have limited access for styles and effects.
Most of the editors do have Adobe's PhotoShop installed on their editing machine. Photoshop allows to save layered TIFFs. Within FCP and other NLEs these files behave like a flattened graphics file, within PhotoShop they behave like a standard PSD file. That means all layers are kept, text is editable, effects can be changed and so on.
Within FCP a layered TIFF always can be edited by pressing opt-return, it's like a Motion Template.
After some conversations with Adobe I decided to rebuild an old app I did some years ago. It takes Spruce(Apple) STL files converts them to XML, EDL, Encore Image scripts in one step. Same time it does script PhotoShop to create those 'layered subtitles'.
This little app also does a kind of 'reverse scripting' as it is able to extract the text from layered TIFFs to a STL file.
You can use the free/lite version of my TitleExchange to create STL files from many subtitle formats, to create other formats from a STL you might need the full version.
The app is free and can be downloaded from the below link
[
www.spherico.com]
Andreas
All the news now and in your digital future
